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Rig Move Day 1 Photos

Rig move day 1 of 2. I’ll try to describe what’s happening for those of you who requested more information. Every oil company and even each individual rig does things a little differently. This describes our experiences. Other gate guards have different stories.

By the way, if you’re interested in taking a closer look at the activities on the site, you can click on these pictures to enlarge them.

So here we are on the left, sitting on top of a little swamp that the oil company filled in and made a pad for us. I can hear the frogs at night. 😀

Our gate guarding company provides two service (nurse) wagons. One holds a generator, our diesel and a water tank. The water is fine for a shower, but woe to any who dare to drink it! The other wagon is taken up by the big green septic tank.

This is the Company Man’s trailer. We have four: 1 day guy, 1 night guy for two weeks. Then two other Company Men for the other two.

They typically have an office in the front with all the monitors. The other 2/3’s of the trailer is a living room and kitchen area, two bedrooms and a bath. It’s not fancy but it’s quite a step up from the rig crew.

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The Safety Man’s trailer is being lowered into place in this photo. The oil company has their own safety guy on site all the time. Billy is here for two weeks. He’ll go home and Eric will be here for the nest two.

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The trailer for the geologist was a tight fit. He won’t start for a couple more days.

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I missed the shot where the guy on the left fell into the water. And I missed the shot where he threw his soggy boots in the air behind the tanks. 😀

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The picnic table has a misting fan at the end, just like at the state fair. As the weather heats up, it’ll provide a brief respite for hot weary guys.

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There’s no distinction between day or night or weekend or holiday on an oil rig. There’s just work.

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H & P (the drilling company) has a Rig Manager (sometimes called a Tool Pusher). I can’t tell you how surprised I was a year and a half ago when someone pulled up to the gate and said: I’m just here to see the pusher. 😉

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I love it when Heidi’s does the talking! People seem to be a lot more intimidated by an English teacher than a counselor. Imagine that!

Actually, we’ve found almost everyone we have contact with to be unfailing nice. It’s been one of the biggest surprises of the job.

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Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all. ~ Sam Ewing

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We’ve been with this rig for 6 weeks and this is the 7th or 8th time they’ve brought us dinner. They have caterers come in for the SPUD meetings and rig move days, but also at just random times, like tonight. They feed everyone on site – even the gate guards.

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We’ve already established they love their meat in Texas. One of the perks of working with all men is they have a double sized idea of what constitutes a serving! We can always get at least 2 meals out of each one, sometimes 3!

That’s it for Day 1 of the rig move. It was the last quiet night I’ll have for however many weeks this hole takes.

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Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. ~ Thomas Edison

18 thoughts on “Rig Move Day 1 Photos”

Great photos–we’ve always been on FRAC sites so things look a bit different. We’re hardly ever within sigt of the work–I guess because FRACing can shake the ground and be very loud! We get catered food twice a day (enough for hard working men) but ours undoubtedly includes dirty rice and TX beans.(No complaits though-I havn’t cookedsince we came out. My bigest surprise on the job has been the extreme politeness everyone shows us-I’m just ‘yes mamm’-ed to death! Carry on friends-Nancy

Nancy –
In all this time, we’ve only been with drilling rigs (except for those first 3 1/2 weeks guarding a water tank). They’re fracing about a mile from us on this ranch. The gate guards were only there for 8 or 9 days. Do you move that often?
Their catering wagon did drop off meals for us a few times even though we weren’t working with them. We were at the main gate and they were just nice. 😀
Luke (memory maker) seems to stay on the same ranch for months through frac and beyond, I guess.

I’m with you. The biggest surprise for us has been how almost universally nice people are. ‘Yes ma’am’ all day and all night! 😉
Every time we thank one of our company men for anything – a meal, moving us back here away from the main gate etc… they all say “You’re family now! We’re going to take care of you.”
Can’t beat that in any business. 😀
Debbie

DEBBIE! WOW! It’s like a combat zone (not the one in Boston) … unless these guys are hookers on the side. I’m guessing that most of these folks are bone tired by the time they (YOU) get their (YOUR) work done.

How do you type in the caliche (sp) or dust fog?

The photos are marvelous. I feel like you just wrote (with photos) a job description! Cool.

Hi Mel!
The guys are beyond tired – especially during the rig move. It gets worse as we move into summer. It was already 91 here today and it’s only April.
We had 64 straight days over 100 degrees last summer. I can’t even imagine doing what they do in that kind of heat!
Caliche eventually gunks up everything:our hitch, our jacks, our slides, our hair, the keyboard etc…
We just dust a lot and shower a lot and spray silicone a lot and live with it. 😀
Debbie

Gracious one, thank you for sharing your world with us! I am in awe of everything. 🙂 And so glad that most are really nice to you and Heidi! I wouldn’t want to have to come down there. . . 😉 love and prayers!

Deb – 😀
You’re so sweet.
They’ve been really nice to us on this rig. We were thanking our CM yesterday for moving us away from the highway and for the nice pad and he said:”Y’all are family now!” 😀
My gg friend in Tilden had a rattlesnake coming at her last night. He was only about 3 feet away when the safety man killed it. You prayers are always appreciated!
Would you add our crew to your prayers? It’s a tough, dangerous business. I can’t count how many injuries we had last year with our Forest Oil guys.
Thanks my friend,
Debbie

Caddo – This evening, Jimbo, our Company Man from Louisiana, stopped by to tell me their cooking crawfish next week. He wanted to know if I’d ever had any? When I said no, he said he’d teach me how to eat them! 😉
Heidi doesn’t like seafood period, so I’m guessing she’ll be working on a graceful way out of that one!
Debbie

Chris – I should have thought of that! I could have climbed up there and probably gotten some really nice shots.
Of course, I probably would have fallen off since I tip over when I’m on the ground. 😀
It’s been really interesting!
Debbie

Thank you for all the pictures
So glad the move went well – the weather held and all are safe!
God is good in little things too
Our move – not as dramatic – went well
Our backs hurt, everythings a mess but we are safe and content with the rest of our future
God Bless you and Heidi!

Susie –
I’m so glad your move is complete.
Moving in the 5th wheel is pretty simple (although we did drop the satellite on its nose and cracked it thoroughly this last time so no TV).
Moving the rig is another story. The guys look so whipped on rig move days. At least it hasn’t been too hot yet (91 today but the move is complete).
God bless you, too!
Debbie

We live in a similiar temperature zone – we were in the 90’s also last week but this week we are cooling down to the low 80’s
Moving in hot weather “whips” any involved
We are also without TV until Friday
Take Care

Hi Susie!
97 yesterday but it’s supposed to cool down to mid 80’s for the next few days. I’m not sure these spring temps bode well for the summer ahead!
We ordered a new satellite which we couldn’t get to work. Heidi, who is about 379x more tenacious than I am, spent 4 hours on the phone with Winegaurd and Direct TV today and got things up and running.
Hope you’re getting rested up from you move and that all is well?
Debbie

All is well and we have similiar temps the next few day – 80;s thru next week and then, gulp, 90’s and above
We should get satelite dish today – we will see if there are any problems – since we live out in the country – about 7 miles from town – we don’t receive very good internet connections and we had to go wireless /WI-FI which seems to go in and out
Oh, well at least we are in the quiet zone out here
God Bless

Wow, wonderful, powerful images! I love the quotes, too, especially the one from Edison, my grandfather worked for him so I know the quote is true, that man was all about the work! I don’t envy you the noise to come, but what an amazing adventure you are on!